My Dog Ate My Night Guard!

on February 8, 2015

*A humorous yet informative article written by talented blogger Amanda Woodward about one of the most common reasons for night guard replacements and reorders. We enjoyed this one and hope you will too!

My dog ate my night guard!

I have a 10 month old Australian Cattle Dog. Her name is Loki. Yes, I named her after the Norse god of mischief. You may say that I was tempting fate. I say that I was just giving in to the inevitable. If you are a dog lover, you know that they like to chew and as a puppy they will chew on just about anything and everything.

Loki has destroyed shoes, socks, and other bits of laundry. She has chewed pencils and pens, gloves and hats, cat toys, and entire boxes of tissue. She chewed a hole in the back of my brand new couch and ate a stack of student homework (in a new twist on an old excuse). She has plenty of toys and raw hides and she chews on those, too. But today she ate my night guard. My very, very expensive custom night guard purchased from the dentist to protect my teeth from my midnight clenching and grinding. The daily mantras in my house are “It’s a good thing you’re cute” and “I can’t wait until you grow up.”

After My Dog Ate My Night Guard

After sweeping up the slobbery little bits that were all that remained of my night guard, I was all set to call the dentist and fork over a wad of cash for a replacement, when (in a last ditch effort to save some money) I took to google and typed “affordable night guards” in the familiar search bar. That’s when I truly discovered the great power of the all mighty internet. You can buy almost anything EVEN custom made night guards exactly like the one from my dentist. Through Sentinel Mouthguard Company, you can replace your custom night guard for a fraction of the amount that you pay your dentist. This is because you take your own dental impression and order the mouth guard directly from the lab.

Here’s how it works:

Sentinel Mouth Guard lab sends a dental impression kit with the putty and trays just like they use in the dentist’s office. You follow the easy step-by-step instructions to mix the putty, put it in the tray, and make an impression of your teeth. In addition to the written instructions there’s an online video as well. In less than ten minutes the impression will be done, all in the comfort of your own home. Use the prepaid envelope to mail it back to the lab. They will make your new night guard and within a week you will be sleeping easy again for much less money than you paid the dentist for the previous puppy chew toy.

There are a number of options with clear descriptions on the Sentinel night guard lab website to help you choose the one that’s best for you. There is a soft, clear nightguard; a hard dental night guard for severe grinding and jaw clenching; and a dual-laminated nightguard that is soft on the inside and hard on the outside for those suffering from TMJ or more moderate grinding. They also make teeth whitening kits with custom made dental trays and custom molded athletic mouth guards. You can even purchase a gift card for the absent-minded athlete in your life (or perhaps the new puppy owner). I know that from now on my night guard is going in the cabinet behind a firmly closed door, but it’s nice to know there is an affordable option available for when I accidentally flush it down the toilet.